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Vice President Nicolas Maduro announced Tuesday, March 5, that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez died at age 58. He had been struggling with health issues and an unspecified cancer for two years.

The career military officer-turned-politician won friends and enemies as he launched poverty-fighting programs, nationalized key industries, and forged alliances with other leftist leaders in Latin America, particularly the Castro brothers in Cuba, during his nearly 15 years in office.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez poses for a photo with his daughters, Maria Gabriela, left, and Rosa Virginia at an unknown location in Havana, Cuba, Feb. 14, 2013. It was the last published photo of the leader.

Credit: AP Photo/Miraflores Presidential Press Office

In this July 24, 2012 file photo, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez holds up a pair of pistols that he says belonged to Venezuela's independence hero Simon Bolivar during a ceremony marking the 229th anniversary of Bolivar's birth, at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela.

Credit: AP Photo/Fernando Llano

The leader of the Bolivarian Revolution 2000, officer Hugo Chavez talks to reporters at the Defense Ministry after he surrendered to troops loyal to the government of Carlos Andres Perez, in Caracas, Venezuela, Feb. 4, 1992.

Credit: AP Photo/Ali Gomez

Army Lt. Col. Hugo Chavez, who headed the 1992 attempted coup, talks to reporters March 26, 1994, after he was freed from jail.

Chavez was freed after charges were dropped against him for leading the first of two attempted coups against the government of former president Carlos Andres Perez, who was later removed from office.

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Former Lt. Col. Hugo Chavez, leader of the 1992 coup and presidential candidate, during a press conference in Mexico, September 12, 1998.

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Venezuelan presidential candidate Hugo Chavez throws the ceremonial first pitch June 14, 1998, during a friendly game between the Central University of Caracas and television actors in Caracas. Chavez, the former military leader of a 1992 failed coup, leads the polls heading into December elections.

Credit: BERTRAND PARRES/AFP/Getty Images

With his wife, Marisabel, and his daughter, Rosaines, Venezuelan presidential candidate Hugo Chavez Frias attends a meeting of supporters in Caracas October 3, 1998.

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Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is greeted by Venezuelan presidential candidate and author of a failed 1992 attempt Hugo Chavez Frias in Caracas November 3, 1998. Carter is in Venezuela to meet with various presidential candidates in view o the country's legislative elections and December 6 presidential vote.

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Venezuelan Presidential candidate Hugo Chavez greets supporters as he arrives at a campaign closing rally November 5, 1998, in Caracas.

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Venezuela's newly-inaugurated President Hugo Chavez addresses the Venezuelan Congress shortly after receiving the presidential sash in Caracas February 2, 1999.

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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, accompanied by his wife Marisabel, pulls out the sword of South American independence hero Simon Bolivar, at the door of the tomb of Bolivar in Caracas July 24, 1999.

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Cuban President Fidel Castro speaks with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at Havana's international airport November 15, 1999. Chavez was attending the IX Iberoamerica Summit which includes 16 Latin American nations along with Spain and Portugal.

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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez poses with Venezuelan major league baseball players (from left) Kelvim Escobar of the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Mets players Melvin Mora, Roger Cedeno and Edgardo Alfonso June 9, 1999 before the Mets game against the Blue Jays at Shea Stadium in Flushing, N.Y. Chavez threw out the ceremonial first pitch.

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Former U.S. President George Bush and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez embrace prior to their breakfast meeting in Houston, Texas, June 11, 1999. Chavez was concluding a visit to the United States that included a stop in New York.

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Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez (center) embraces Zimbawe's President Robert Mugabe, behind U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, during the official photograph of the Group of 77 South Summit, in Havana, April 12, 2000. Twenty-seven heads of State and 15 Prime Ministers from the Group attended the summit.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez speaks as his wife Marisabel de Chavez wipes sweat from his face as he celebrates the results of the July 30, 2000 presidential elections in Caracas. With 77 percent of the vote counted, official results gave Chavez a large margin with 2.9 million votes. His opponent Francisco Arias Cardenas received 1.8 million votes.

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Iraqi President Saddam Hussein meets with his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez in Baghdad August 10, 2000.

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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez appears at ceremonies during celebrations to mark the 189th anniversary of the Independence of the country in Caracas, July 5, 2000.

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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez inspects military maneuvers of the national Air Force March 17, 2001 in Catilletes, near the border with Colombia.

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British Queen Elizabeth II and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez pose for a picture at Buckingham Palace in London, October 24, 2001. Chavez was on a European tour.

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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez tours Ground Zero of the World Trade Center site in New York on November 10, 2001.

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Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, left, and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, then-President of Brazil, chat during the inauguration ceremony for the construction of a joint refinery project set up by the two countries on Dec. 15, 2005, in Recife, Brazil.

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IN a picture released by the Cuban newspaper Juventud Rebelde on January 30, 2007, Cuban President Fidel Castro and his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez are seen. Cuba's ailing Castro was shown on Cuban television telling his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez that his recovery was "far from being a lost battle." The 80-year-old revolutionary leader, who was shown standing and chatting with Chavez, looked far fitter than he did when images of him were last broadcast here three months ago.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, second left, shakes hands with Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, right, next to Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos, left, and Chile's President Sebastian Pinera during the inauguration ceremony of Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff, unseen, at the Planalto presidential palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Saturday, Jan. 1, 2011.

Credit: AP Photo/Eraldo Peres

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez greets supporters next to his two daughters - Rosa Virginia, left, and Maria Gabriela - on a balcony of the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 4, 2011.

Credit: AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez salutes troops during an event marking the 74th anniversary of the National Guard at the military academy in Fuerte Tiuna in Caracas, Venezuela, Aug. 4, 2011.

Credit: AP Photo/Miraflores Presidential Office

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez makes the victory sign after a meeting with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2011. Chavez underwent surgery in Cuba in June that removed a cancerous tumor from his pelvic region, and shaved his head after starting to lose his hair due to chemotherapy.

Credit: AP Photo/Fernando Llano

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez takes his cap off during a welcoming ceremony for Bolivian President Evo Morales at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, Sept. 17, 2011.

Credit: AP Photo

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, left, and Cuba's President Raul Castro raise hands prior to the inauguration ceremony of a summit by the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, CELAC, in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday Dec. 2, 2011.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (left) jokes with U.S. actor Sean Penn during his visit to Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, on February 16, 2012. Penn thanked Chavez for the support given by the Venezuelan government to his NGO for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti in 2010, while the president praised the humanitarian work of the artist in the Caribbean country.

Credit: LEO RAMIREZ

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, center, greets supporters during a caravan from Miraflores government palace to Simon Bolivar airport in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, Feb. 24, 2012. Chavez was on his way to Cuba to have a tumor removed from the same region of the pelvis where he had cancer surgery last year.

Credit: AP Photo/Fernando Llano

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gestures before voting in Caracas on October 7, 2012. Venezuelans voted Sunday with President Hugo Chavez's 14-year socialist revolution on the line as the leftist leader faced youthful rival Henrique Capriles in his toughest electoral challenge yet.